San Bernardino County Cross Country: Mountain Valley League

The Mountain Valley League features the Pacific Pirates and the San Bernardino Cardinals. In addition, non-San Bernardino County schools include Banning, Moreno Valley, Vista Del Lago and Rubidoux.

2015 Boys Preview

Rubidoux rock and rolled to the league title in 2014 and then progressed to a 4th place finish at the State Meet. However, that Falcon team and the 2015 version will look different as they only return 3 from the middle of the lineup. Will they have the goods to win the league? They should, as the next closest teams were devastated by graduation. Vista Del Lago finished a distant 2nd with a top heavy crew that could not afford the loss of a pair of sub-15:30 runners. Rubidoux will also contend with a coaching change that could have an effect. The two County teams here waged an epic battle for the 3rd spot in 2014 and it was Pacific, after dropping the first league meet, coming back to edge San Bernardino by a point at league finals to advance. The problem for the Pirates is that Javin Singer and 5 others from that team have graduated. Hector Padilla is all that remains and depth has never been a huge strength for Pacific. San Bernardino has depth issues as well, but are sitting in a position to move up in the standings. Jairo Ventura and Moleka Miramontes should lead the Cardinals in 2015 to CIF.

2015 Girls Preview

Not only did Pacific lose 6 of 7 on the boys side, but the same story for the girls. After erasing a 33 point deficit to Rubidoux in the first league meet to win the League Finals, only one remains. Dianna Virrveta gained CIF experience and they have Kimberly Lopez, who ran faster at the Mt. SAC Invitational, but not much else. They will struggle to advance to CIF as Rubidoux returns 4 and Vista Del Lago returns 5 to gain the upper hand. San Bernardino was a distant 5th a year ago, but are in a better position than Pacific with Andrea Contreras Vasquez solid up front for the Cardinals.